Week 6 – Sun 9th November

Well, I’m six weeks in now. Just to remind you all, I started the ketogenic diet at 15 stone, 10 pounds. My goal is 12 and a half stone, by mid-March 2015. This means a target weight-loss of 2lb per week.

Week Six’s target-weight therefore? 14 stone, 12 pounds. Waistline measurement only once a month, so not this week.

Okay, so I’m still 10 pounds lighter than I was six weeks ago. But I’m back into the ’15-stone bracket’ which makes all my efforts feel totally pointless.

Body fat is a strange thing. It’s like a stubborn squatter – impervious to eviction! I’ve been in a constant state of ketosis the whole time; surely the weight should be literally ‘falling off’! My body feels slimmer, only the scales don’t reflect that.

I’m aware that, as fat-cells deplete their stores of triglycerides (the body’s ‘storage’ form of fat), the cell temporarily displaces lost fat with water. Eventually, the cell realises that it’s not going to be re-filled any time soon, and sulkily shrinks down to ’empty’. Water is heavy stuff, so you can actually be burning body fat for quite some time yet see no reduction in weight (read more about this here). This is the most likely explanation, but it’s difficult to simply ‘take it on faith’!

Another thing that may equally be to blame, is that I’ve had a birthday this week. 36 years-young! Although I’ve still been incredibly good with the carbs, I took Thursday & Friday off work. This means I was at home for fours days on the trot. Implication? More cooking, bigger lunches and puddings! Even low-carb pudding contributes to calorific intake; so if the volume of food I’ve been eating increased over the last few days, it stands to reason that my calorific intake also increased in equal measure.

I suppose I must simply keep telling myself that weight is a fluid thing. Everyone who diets has goods weeks and bad weeks. I’d just rather leave the bad weeks to someone else!

On the positive side however, the diet is still incredibly easy to follow. I have no hunger pangs whatsoever, feel completely relaxed about food and in no way feel that a ketogenic-diet lacks variety. If anything, it’s pushing me to cook & expand my repertoire a lot more. I’m constantly thinking ahead of time, planning nice, interesting things to cook so I can post them on this blog!

And physically? Any changes to how I’m feeling?

On the whole, in great shape! I still feel increasingly active and want to get moving and out-and-about. Because ketosis is a constant source of energy (unlike glycolysis which fuels in fitful peaks and troughs); there’s a strange sense of ‘background power’ when I exercise; almost as if I could go on forever. This feeling is interesting, new and rather novel!

All in all, I shouldn’t grumble! I’m still well on the way to being a new slimmer, fitter me, and there’s no looking back. I just hope I fare better next week, to regain a little of the lost ground. I don’t mind missing my targets if the general trend is a downward one. But if the ‘upward trend’ continues, maybe I’ll have to start reassessing the whole thing!

Please do ‘look in’ on me next week to see if I meet my targets. I find it really positive to have people read this – the support is a massive encouragement!

One thought on “Week 6 – Sun 9th November”

Adam – Don’t worry about your weight this week. Your body doesn’t know its Sunday! You will probably have lost inches rather than lbs. Two weeks ago I reached my goal weight with Weight Watchers – a completely different way of eating to your own. Then last week I put on 2.5lbs without doing anything different from normal. Devastating – but this week I lost 2lb. No rhyme nor reason. Keep going and don’t be disheartened. The weight will come off eventually. A normal weight loss is between 1lb and 2lb per week so you’ve done really well to lose as much as you have. I am thoroughly enjoying your blog and, as Caroline succinctly put it, you are an amazing cook – Caroline’s mum